Hello 4 month sleep regression, now p*ss off

[sphinxster]

I've just spent 2 hours shushing and playing heart beat sound tracks.

She's fallen asleep approximately 874 times and has immediately woken back up.

Reasons she's woken up: the cat jumping in an adjacent room, neighbour using a strimmer, me trying to sneak out of the room, a car door in the road, her own arms moving, the wind blowing the front door, her own legs moving, a butterfly farting in Mongolia...

She's shattered, she's tearful, but she won't go to sleep! We've now missed the nap boat as 18 month old has just woken from his nap and will want to point out her nose and eyes.

[furryelephant]

I'd leave him asleep I've found that waking DD up makes her harder to get back down for the next nap, and anything for an easy life goes I think it is true that better day time sleep leads to better night time sleep so maybe tonight will be a bit better! Mine has just had her second 30 minute nap of the day and I haven't been able to put her down long enough without screaming to even brush my teeth yet is it bedtime yet?

[Youvegotafriendinme]

We had a 1.5 hour battle just to get to sleep, he was asleep for about an hour before he woke at 9.30/10/12/3-5/6-7:30.
He is clearly tired as he slept for 2 hours at 7:30 and is napping now and has nearly been asleep for another 2 hours. I'm tempted to wake him though 🤔 Opinions?

furryelephant I'm sure between us we can come up with the perfect sleeping tablet for babies. Of course it would be organic right?

[furryelephant]

Someone needs to make an over the counter sleeping pill for babies it would be a best seller! 😂

[furryelephant]

I made a very unimaginative title last night and no one joined, I was feeling very alone in my battle had a 5-7am wake up (along with her going to bed at 9, waking at 10/11/12.30/2.30....) so was losing the plot

[Youvegotafriendinme]

My brain is currently a pile of jelly so I'm not able to come up with a snappy title but your one seems just fine grayfig

[Grayfig]

@furryelephant Ok - let's try a thread, I'm sure there have been many in the past but there's no doubt a new crop of mums going round the bend. Something like "If your baby (4-7m) needs hours of rocking or feeding to sleep but you don't want to do CC/hardcore sleep training...lets share tips and progress!". Or do you have a snappy title in mind?

[Youvegotafriendinme]

furryelephant how was your night? I've had a total of 3 hours through the night. This is just getting worse each night!

[furryelephant]

[furryelephant]

You've I regularly threaten my DD with her being put in the shed if she doesn't go back to sleep. Think it just makes her angrier

[Youvegotafriendinme]

I wish my son only woke twice! From the time I put him down at 7am till the time he wakes at roughly 5am, he wakes up at least 6-8 times. It's like he is just taking lots of naps! I love him dearly but the lack of sleep is making me want to move down to the garage

[user1495370365]

Your message had me giggling - your sense of humour will get you through this phase! My son went from sleeping through consistently to waking twice for a feed at 4 months. It ended as suddenly as it started. Fingers crossed you're heading for the end!

[Youvegotafriendinme]

Oh yes! Son does this with his dummy! Puts it in his mouth, chews the plastic then pulls it out but cries for you to put in back in!

[furryelephant]

Oh it would be lovely!! I'll try and think of some sort of amusing title for one if you haven't my DD loves her dummy, but more to hold and chew the plastic rather than suck I agree about being frustrated with everyone else's perfectly sleeping babies! One at a group I go to sleeps 12 hours straight and "only" naps for 30 minutes in their cot... I felt like screaming that mine won't even go in the cot at night

[Grayfig]

It's so frustrating how almost all the bubs in my mothers group go to sleep with just white noise / maybe a dummy. Mine won't take one, I've tried! Maybe we should start a thread for those in the same boat (4-6mth olds) who don't want to use crying methods - there's an old thread like this but it may be nice to have solidarity and tips as to what works?

[furryelephant]

@Grayfig I feel like sometimes the only answer will be sleep training too, I also feed her to sleep for all wake ups! Sometimes she falls back asleep before her head hits the pillow she lies on to feed thoughI don't think I could do CIO or anything like that, I bought the book by the Cheshire Baby Whisperer or something but haven't implemented anything yet. I have a feeling I'll continue rocking/swaying/playing music for her to fall asleep until I go back to work and hoping my mum will sort it

[Grayfig]

OP have you tried the Baby Shusher app on your phone? I agree this is awful, mine has had crap naps and night sleep for 1.5 months and she is now almost 5m old. Worse, I'm ending up feeding her to sleep every time after previous success with hands on settling! And keep feeling as if perhaps (and being told by everyone) the only cure is sleep training. Is anyone else in this boat? Then again, I don't see why sleep training is the answer when I know many babies who settle with minimal intervention, surely they all reach that stage eventually?

[furryelephant]

I've convinced myself that this is how the rest of my life of sleep will be so then anything better will feel like an achievement! She's just come out of a leap and getting over being unwell so I'm hoping it might improve soon, at least enough that I can have some without the worry that she won't sleep until she's in with me

[Youvegotafriendinme]

furryelephant we are at 6mo too! I thought it would be over by now. Feels never ending doesn't it!

[sphinxster]

Notwithoutmymerkin that might work for us as the only time she closes her eyes is when I've shushed so much I fear for my teeth!!

[CatsCantFlyFast]

I'm pretty sure you'll have tried it but white noise, through a decent speaker, stops the wake ups here. I have it pretty bloody loud (I use one called calm waves) so no other household noise can be heard

[furryelephant]

We're at 6 months now and after 2.5 months still having horrendous sleep not so horrendous when I give in and let her sleep in my bed though! You definitely go into autopilot survival mode

[sphinxster]

Youvegotafriend if I could microwave it, I would!

[sphinxster]

I've been doing a midnight dream feed which has been working well and I'm hoping after being awake from 7am-7pm without one single minute of napping, she'll sleep through a marching band practicing.

[sphinxster]

I've been repeating "It will get better" to myself all day.

[Youvegotafriendinme]

sphinxster I couldn't work out how you microwaved toast but then re read it! Regression brain!